Side door for railway cars



Patented Aug. 21, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR E. SMALL,'OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOB TO RAILWAY METAL PRODUCTS COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

SIDE DOOR FOR RAILWAY CARS.

Application filed December 23, 1926. serial No. 156,704.

My device relates to a railway car having a door opening in its side wall and a door arranged to move horizontally to close the door opening. Such a door may be supported upon the side sill by brackets with anti-friction rollers mounted therein, (as illustrated) or it may be supported by suspension hangers engaging a track supported by the side plates adjacent the top of the door opening. The front vertical edge of the door is proyided with a stiffener or frame member having a tongue or extension which engages a front door stop mounted on the front door post and the rear vertical edge of the door is provided with a stiffener or frame member having a tongue or extension which engages a rear locking strip mounted on the'rear door post. These front and rear tongue engagements form weatherproof and burglarproof joints. The upper horizontal edge of the door is provided with-astiffener, frame member or a top interlocking strip (as shown in the drawings) and the bottom edge is provided with a frame member or perhaps a bottom track with a vertical depending lip behind the supporting bracket (as illustrated);

The front, rear, top and bottom stifieners are secured together at the corners of the door to form a rectangular frame. It is common practice to stiffen the four sides of a wooden door with such frame members and to stiffen the wooden door with battens, stiles and intermediate horizontal metal stiffening strips, but my device is an improvement thereon and contemplates the use of a relatively thin metallic plate rigidly secured to such a frame with integral horizontal, vertical or diagonal corrugations or embossments formed therein which transmit any loads or thrusts imposed thereon to the frame members. oards or grain doors are sometimes nailed to the inside of the door posts to prevent the lading bearing against the door, but more frequently, particularly in package lading, the cargo bears against the door, and the impact of the car in service causes a wedging action between the cargo and the door. A side door is subjected to quite a few forces which have a tendency to distort the rectang'ularity of the door and cause buckling stresses in thedoor body plate. Such forces are caused by the door being moved suddenly to closed position when either the upper corner or lower corner of the door strikes the front door stop before the other corner does. This condition is caused by the door opening being out of square. Such forces are also caused when the door suddenly hits the back door stop an eccentric blow. The crowbar when used to open a door is another source of trouble.

Considerable difficulty is experienced with warping of Wooden doors and the fabrication of flat steel plates with metallic stiffeners is expensive and results in a very heavy door and even corrugated metallic doors have been proposed but they lack the strength and resiliency of my design.

The object of my device is to provide integral ribs or corrugations in a metallic plate when used as a side door for a railway car which transmit any stresses imposed thereon to frame members at the opposite edges of the metallic plate, which frame members, with other similar frame members, form a rectangular frame for the door. And a further object is to so form and shape such embossments or corrugations as to impart strength and rigidity to the plate adjacent its middle or lower portion and to impart resiliency and flexibility to the plate adjacent the ends of the corrugations adjacent the oppositely disposed frame members.

Another object is to form a metallic door with integral major corrugations or ribs which impart to it a certain amount of strength and rigidity to resist loads imposed thereon and to also form minor integral ribs or corrugations therein between the major corrugations which merge into the ends thereof to provide a certain amount of resiliency to enable the door to deflect and return to its normal position without appreciable amount of permanent distortion.

Another object is to obtain the desired strength, rigidity and resiliency by a particular and peculiar relative position and relation of the two types of corrugations.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of a railway car equipped with a side door comprising my improvement.

Figs. 2 and 3 are sections on 3-3 respectively of Fig. 1.

4 and 5 are sections on line 44 and 5-5 respectively of Fig. 1 with the car parts omitted.

Figs. 6, 7 and 8 are sections similar to Figs. 3, 4 and 5 but show the major corrugations with an arcuate confi ration.

Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive show the preferred line 22 and form wherein the plate is provided with a plurality of major corrugations 31 with flat apices 32 which are spaced apart distances substantially equal to theirrespective widths and the portions 33 of the plate between the major corrugations are also flat so that the configuration is symmetrical in cross section about a line midway between the outermost ortions of these major corrugations, which ine is the neutral axis of the section. Such a section is very strong on account of the amount of metal positioned away from the neutral axis and is also relatively rigid. These major corrugations 31 are preferably widest and deepest adjacent their middle portion and decrease in width-toward their opposite ends and the apices changes from a flat to an arcuate configuration. v The metallic plate is also provided. with a plurality of aligned minor corrugations 34 which lie between adjacent major corrugations 31 with their inner ends preferably mer ing into the plate adj acent each other an with their outer ends merging into the plate in line with the outeren 3 of the major corrugations.

he outer ends of the minor corrugations 34 have arcuate apices and the portions of the plate 35 between these outer ends of the minor corrugations and the outer ends of the major corrugations are also arcuate so that they form a cross section of sinuous configuration, and, furthermore, the outer ends (at 36) 0f the minor and major corrugations are of the same width and spaced apart distances equal to their respective widths so that they form a contiguous sinuous configuration symmetrical in cross section about a line midway between the outermost portions of the corrugations, which line is the neutral axis of the section, Such a section is very resilient and has a spring like action under load, and, furthermore, produces a very strong section for the amount of metal used. llhe minor and major corrugations merge into the plane of the plate by means of terminal portions 37 of any desired formation. lBy such an arrangement a corrugated metallic late is provided which is relatively rigid ad acent the middle of the plate and relatively resilient adjacent the op-.

- posite end portions of the corrugations.

I have designed my invention for use in steel plates so that when the section modulus of any section (normal to the corrugations) is multiplied by a constant fibre stress the result equals the bending moment of that section for .either a load concentrated at the middle of the corrugated part of the plate or for a load equally distributed over the corrugated part of the plate, thus showing that I have not sacrificed any required strength at the ends of the beams to obtain resiliency; in other words, by my construction I obtain a very strong plate which is also resilient.

The major. corrugations preferably in-' neensao crease in depth and width toward their middle portion, and the minor corrugations decrease indepth and .width proportionately so that the lengths of the center lines of the metallic plate of all cross sections of the corrugated portion of the plate are equal.

The major and minor corrugations may be positioned and dimensioned so that the length of the center lines of the metal of a cross sec tion of the major corrugations adjacent their middle (see Fig. 3) is the same as the length of the center line of the metal of a cross section of the major and minor corrugations adjacent their end portions. (See Fig. 5). Furthermore, the corrugated plate may be so formed that the length of the center line of the metallic plate of any cross section (for instance, as per Fig. 4) is-equal to the length of the center line of the metal of any cross section, that is, between the terminal portions. This is a material manufacturing advantage as it more evenly distributes the draw and stretchof the metal due to pressing the corrugations in the plate.

Figs. 3, 4 and 5 show a construction wherein the major corrugations 31 with fiat apices 32 and the portions (33) of the plate between the major corrugations also bein'g flat, Figs. 6, 7 and 8 are similar to Figs. 3, 4 and 5, respectively, and show a construction wherein the major corrugations with arcuate apices 37 and the portions of the plate ('38) between the majorcorrugations also being arcuate.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof within the scope of the claims will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. A horizontally movable side door for a railway car comprising a metallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a plurality of major corrugations which decrease in width toward their ends, each plate also provided with a plurality of minor corrugations lying between said major corrugations which increase in width toward the edges of the plate until the major and minor corrugations terminate into the plate adjacent sa d oppositely disposed frame membersand in line with each other. v

2. A horizontally movable side door for a railway car comprising a metallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a plurality of major corrugations which decrease in width and depth toward their ends, each plate also provided with a plurality of minor corrugations lying between said major corrugations which increase in width and depth toward the edges of the plate until the ma or width adjacent said and minor corrugations terminate into the plate adjacent said oppositely disposed frame members and in line with each other.

3. A horizontally'movable side door for a railway car comprising ametallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a plurality of major corrugations spaced apart intermediate their ends distances substantially equal to their width which decrease in width toward their ends, each plate also provided with aplurality of minor corrugations lying between said major corrugations which increase in width toward the edges of the plate until the major and minor corrugations are spaced apart distances equal to their -width adjacent said oppositely disposed frame members.

4. A horizontally movable side door. for

railway car comprising a metallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a plurality of major corrugations spaced apart distances substantially equal to their .width which decrease in width and depthttoward their ends, each plate also provided -with a plurality of minor corrugations lying between said major corrugations which increase in width and depth toward the edges of the plate until the major and minor-corrugations are spaced apart distances equal to' their oppositely disposed frame members.

5. A horizontally movableside door for a railway car comprising a metallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a plurality of major corrugations symmetrical in cross section about a line midway between the outermost portions of the corrugations which decrease in width toward their ends, each plate also provided with a plurality of minor corrugations lying between said major corrugations which increase in width toward the edges of the plate until the major and minor corrugations form a cross section symmetrical about a line midway between the outermost portions of the corrugations adjacent said oppositely disposed frame members.

6. A horizontally movable side door for a railway car comprising a metallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a plurality of major corrugations symmetrical in cross section about a line midway between the outermost portions of the corrugations which decrease in width and depth toward their ends, each plate also provided with a plurality of minor corrugations lying between said major corrugations which increase in width and depth toward the edges of the late until the major and minor corrugations form a cross section symmetrical about a line of the door, said plate provided with a plurality of major corrugations which decrease in depth toward their ends, each' plate also provided with a plurality of minor corrugations lying between said major corrugations which increase in depth toward the edges of the plate, the length of the center line of the metallic plate, of a cross section of the major corrugations adjacent the middle of a plate being the same as the length of the center line of the metal of a cross section of the major and minor corrugations adjacent said frame members.

8. A horizontally movable side door for a railway car comprising a metallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a plurality of truncated major corrugations which decrease in width toward their ends, each plate also provided with a plurality of minor corrugations lying between said major corrugations which increase in width toward the edges of the plate until the major and minor corrugations are contiguous and form a sinuous configuration adjacent said oppositely disposed frame members.

9. A horizontally movable side door for a railway car comprising a metallic plate secured to oppositely disposed frame members of the door, said plate provided with a plurality of truncated major corrugations which decrease in width and depth toward their ends, each plate also provided with a plurality of minor corrugations lying between said major corrugations which increase in width and depth toward the edges of the plate until the major and minor corrugations are 'which increase in depth toward their outer ends until the major and minor corrugations form a plurality of relatively shallow corrugations adjacent each of said frame members so as to provide a relatively rigid structure adjacent the center of the door and a relative- 1y resilient structure adjacent each of said frame members.

ARTHUR EL SMALL; 

